Microsoft Corp.'s fix for the Windows Metafile vulnerability will be shipped Thursday as a critical, out-of-cycle update.

Reversing an earlier decision to release the patch on Jan. 10., the software maker announced that strong customer demand for an emergency update triggered the shift in plans.

The fixes have been included in the MS06-001 bulletin and apply to users of Windows 2000 SP4, Windows XP SP1 and SP2, and Windows Server 2003 SP1.

There are no free patches available for computer users running Windows 98, Windows ME and pre-SP4 versions of Windows 2000, since those versions of the operating system are out of mainstream product support.

Even as it admitted that active exploits and strong customer demand forced the early release of the update, Microsoft continued to insist that the attacks are limited and are being mitigated by its efforts to shut down malicious sites hosting the rigged WMF image files.

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